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Darth Bling

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Blog Entries posted by Darth Bling

  1. Darth Bling
    SWEET!!! I just scored a set of fairings on ebay! And, it's even in my favorite color for the CBR. :happy:
    Ok, ok, I have to admit, I really like the white color scheme too. Oh, and I just saw the new '08 flat black color last weekend, very hot! :beer:

    So, here's the story:
    I've been trolling around ebay looking for parts for my new CBR. I found a complete set of blue fairings on ebay about a week and a half ago, so I put a bid in for them. Well, I thought I was doing good until the last hour of the auction when the price suddenly shot up to $1000. Too rich for my blood, but I continued to watch just for fun. And to my amazement, within the last minute, the price got pushed up to $1500! :ohmy: And that doesn't include the $200 the seller was charging for shipping.
    Well, that was quite a disappointment. I really don’t want to spend that much money for a complete set of fairings, but I continued to search ebay. And, to my delight, I found another set of blue fairings. So I put down an opening bid of $250 and watched it with great anticipation. :thumbsup: You see, this auction was unique because the seller didn't list it correctly. He didn't put any of the common search words in the title like bodywork, plastics, or fairings. He also left out the 600RR part and simply put RR6 in the title. :warrenty:
    I had high hopes for this auction since it didn't have much visibility. A few people did find it and the price eventually got up to about $510 within the last 10 minutes. With exactly one minute left, I decide to put in a bid of $850 for it. And, too my surprise, I got an error saying I didn't meet the seller's buyer requirements. WTF!! :unsure:
    I had placed a bid earlier without any trouble, but now I don’t meet the requirements. I try a few more times to get my bid in, but each time I get the same error. And then I realize the error says that I don’t meet the requirements because I don’t have a paypal account. But I do have a paypal account! :pissed:
    And that’s when I see the link that say, “Already have a paypal account? Click here to link it to ebay.” I click on the link as fast as I can and feverously type my paypal info into the black fields and hit submit. I get a congratulation message and then I click the take-me-back-to-were-I-was” button. But instead it takes me to my paypal account and not back to the auction!
    Luckily, I had another window open that I was using to place my bid with. So, I click the back button on that and then hit the confirm bid button and quick as I can. And what do I see: "You’re the highest bidder! Time left: 1 sec."
    It took me a few seconds to get over the shock of what just happened, but I had won the auction, literally, without a second to spare. That was the longest, most stressful one minute of my ebay buying career. :goofy:
  2. Darth Bling
    I've been looking for quite a while now at getting another bike to accompany by VFR. The main reason behind my decision is that I'm afraid that I'm eventually going to crash my VFR at the track. And, if I were to do that, I'd be hurting pretty bad. The VFR is my only bike and if it got wrecked, I'd have to spend a ton of money to fix it back up. But, if I had another bike (especially a bike I could buy sharkskinz for), I wouldn't have to worry about that. :salesman:
    So, I've been trolling around WERA boards and my local racing forums looking for a track bike, but so far nothings come close to my price range. I did check out an RC51 here locally that a guy raced and was getting rid of it because he already had two other race bikes. His current bike was the GSXR1000, but he just picked up a salvaged Ducati 1098 and was getting ready to convert it to track (hence why he was selling the RC51 to pay upgrades for the 1098). Now, this got me thinking: if I could find a wrecked bike from a salvage yard, I could put it back together and I'd have me a track bike.
    Ever since the 2007 CBR600RR came out, I've been drooling over it. I've heard nothing but good things about it and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I just never could justify spending that much money for a new bike. And, even used ones are going for $7000+. But, if I could find a wreck/salvaged CBR...
    So, I've been in contact with this salvage yard and they just got a 2007 CBR600RR in with a clean title. Most of the damage is superficial. The only major damage is a bent subframe, missing exhaust pipe, and missing right headlight.


    I’ll be picking the bike up next Wednesday from the salvage yard. Once I get it fixed back up, I'll post some pictures of it on the forum! :thumbsup:
  3. Darth Bling
    Saturday, February 23rd. Portland International Raceway reopens after upgrading and repaving the track. My mother came into town that weekend to check out the track and watch me run a track day on Sunday.
    So, we're at the track on Saturday for the ribbon cutting ceremony. There was quite a collection of vehicles at the track to do the inaugural first lap. Portland police were there with their Dodge Charger, a guy in a go-kart, a Porsche, a few vintage vehicles, a Ferrari and a pair of bicyclist. There were also three guys from Cascade Tracktime there too. They were on a Suzuki DRZ (I think), a dirt bike, and a tricked out Ducati 1098. The Duc was fully loaded with all the trick race parts. It even had carbon rotors too! I got to see this thing in action the next day during the track day and it was fast!

    Anyway, a couple different people gave speeches and one guy gave a great history of the track. For those of you who don't know, PIR was built on the site of the old city of Vanport, OR. Vanport was the largest temporary housing project during the 1940s in the United States. It housed over 40 thousand workers for the wartime shipping docks during World War II. After the war, the population dropped to around 18 thousand. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1948, a dike on the Columbia River breached and the city was destroyed in that single day. Years later, a small racing club negotiated with the city of Portland to hold a race on the ruined streets of Vanport. Then in the early 1970s, a real track was built and which is what has matured into present-day PIR.
    Time to cut the ribbon!

    The Portland Police car led the assorted collection of vehicles around for the first lap on the new track. Afterward, we were all invited to walk around the 1.9 mile track to check it out first hand.

    Out in the middle of PIR, there's a pretty big pond. Lots of ducks and stuff live in there.

    And here's a shot of the back straight. As I would find out the next day, this section of the track is wicked! It seems like a gentle curve, but above a hundred it certainly doesn't feel that way. You really have to fight the bike to hold its line when you're accelerating down the straight. You're basically hanging off the entire time down the straight.

    As part of the renovation, PIR redid turns 4 through 7. The track was widened throughout these corners, and turns 6 and 7 were changed. From what I understand, turn 6 was somewhat of a blind corner originally, so they moved the fence out of the way. They also made turn 7 into a knurly 90° corner. Many people were calling it the "hair pin" since it was so tight. Formula One style curbs were also installed throughout the track.
    And that brings us to Sunday the 24th! Track day! As part of a fundraiser, the Porsche Club of American and Cascade Tracktime were hosting track days.

    The track was still wet that morning from late night rain and it was only about 50°F out, so conditions were less than ideal. After two car sessions had their go at the track, it was the bikes' turn to head out.

    There was about 40-50 of us out on the track. The event was billed as a beginner/intermediate track day, but there were quite a few semi-pro guys there too. There is nothing quite like pegging the bike out on the front straight when some guy on one of the various superbikes that were there blows past you going at least 40 mph faster than you. The amount of power those bikes had was unimaginable.
    So, the first run was wet and cold. Everyone’s helmet visors were fogging up and nobody could see where they were going. I was doing okay, but I felt really uncomfortable out on the bike. I didn't have any confidence in my tires which was a Pirelli Diablo up front and a Metzler Z6 in the rear. Yes, you heard me; I was running a sport-touring tire on the rear! Plus, I was using GP-shifting which I still wasn't too comfortable with yet. And the track was wet (did I already mention that).
    Somewhere during my fourth lap (first two laps were sighting laps), the linkage on my shifter broke. The nuts had back off from the vibration and the linkage just came apart. I was stuck in third gear for the remainder of my lap and I exited the track.
    On our second run, the cars had managed to dry the track out some more. Unfortunately, some poor guy lost control of his bike down the front straight (it must have been a mechanical failure) and crashed out.

    Before lunch, all the riders had a meeting to discuss some passing etiquette. Apparently the pros were irritated at some of the newbies because they were taking wide, erratic lines. Well, duh! As you know, track days usually split into three groups based on skill level. When you mix really fast guys with really slow guys, you're going to have problems.

    After lunch, we had our third session. The track had warmed up a tiny bit, the sun had dried it out, and I got the tire pressures on my bike dialed in. I was able to push the bike pretty good this time around. I was becoming more familiar with the layout of the track and so I was starting to get my knee down in some corners. Unfortunately the red flag came out and we were all force to pit. I eventually found out latter than Dwayne, the guy who had set up camp across from me in the parking lot, had run off the track at turn 7. He kept his bike up (the mud had also dried out too and was now just dirt) and was able to rejoin the group, but that brought out the red flag.
    Sitting for a few minutes in the pits wasn't good for my tires as they started to cool down. Once back out on the track, I manage to pass this pesky gsxr1000 that was holding me up in the corners, but I ended up braking too deep into turn 7. My tires hadn’t quite warmed back up enough yet, so I ending up running off the track and into the dirt. The checker flag was just being brought out, so I waited by the fence chatting with the photographers until the track was clear to head back to the pits.
    The fourth session was a complete blast. I had confidence in my tires (that Z6 was solid all day), I was pretty comfortable with GP-shifting (only had one bad shift all day), and the track was clean and dry. Once I got out on the track, I proceeded to grind down my knee-pucks every opportunity I could get. Unfortunately, after about four hard laps, one of the bolts in my shift linkage snapped in half and I was again stuck in third gear, so I limped back to the pits and called it a day.

    Prior to my shift linkage breaking during the fourth session, some idiot got black flagged for riding over the curbs. Well, instead of proceeding to the pits on his next lap like he should of done, he thought the black flag meant stop. So, he pulled over and stopped on the track. Obviously, this is not a good thing to do and the marshals were screaming at him to move. And as you would guess, some guy comes blasting out of turn 12 onto the front straight heading right for this idiot. Luckily he grabbed the binders in time and scrub some speed off. With his front tire locked and his rear tire pointing at the sky, he rear ends the other bike. Both guys are fine. Luckily for Mr. Idiot, the other rider just turned and walked away in a fit of rage. I’m guessing I was about 10 seconds behind all this when it this happened, because the first time I saw a red flag was going through the last turn 12. As I'm following a group of bikes through turn 12, we had to grab huge handfuls of brake coming onto the straight to avoid the accident.
    The new track at PIR is awesome. It's super grippy and tons of fun. It's a really fast track since you have two really longs straights to get massive speed on. I managed to hit 140 mph a few times at the end of the front straight.


  4. Darth Bling

    New Bike

    By Darth Bling,

    I just couldn't help myself. I just bought myself a new motorcycle, a 1998 VFR! :D
    Here's a picture of the beast:

    Yeah, I know, it needs a little TLC, but I'm sure I can get it fixed up some day. :goofy:
  5. Darth Bling
    I put a couple of new mods on my bike last week. Just finally got around to taking some pictures of them tonight.
    The first new mod is my Küryakyn Voltmeter. I mounted it underneath the speedometer display. It displays red, yellow, and green LED based on the health of your charging system. Obviously, green means everything is good.

    And here's my new "Back Off" Brand LED license plate frame. I've got it wired up so it works as a running light and brake light. The yellow LEDs on the ends also work as turn signals. The frame originally came in chrome, but I took care of that with some spray paint. :D

  6. Darth Bling
    Well, it's taken me awhile, but I finally got some pictures taken of my new front end. Gave the bike a wash for the first time since last August (I think) and removed the saddlebag mounts and grab handles to give it a clean look for the photos. I'll be putting the saddlebag and top-box mounts back on later for a trip I have planned next week. I'll be going to Montana with my parents for the national Goldwing rally. :thumbsup:
    After getting the bike washed, a friend and I rode up to the Vista House which is located on the old historic Columbia highway about 25 miles east of Portland. It was a really nice day and the view from the outlook was great. We parked our bikes up on the sidewalk where there wasn't a railing and snap some pictures. The park ranger walked up and we though we were in trouble, but it turned out she was just tired of talking to tourists and wanted to see if we was up to something more interesting. I tried to get her to hop on the bike for a picture, but she declined. She was really cute, especially in her Oregon state park ranger uniform. Too bad she's a hippie vegetarian from Iowa though. :rolleyes:
    Anyway, here are some pictures: :beer:


    Beside the RC51 front end, I also have a set of Leo Vince Titanium pipes plus some 98/99 catless headers that have been ceramically coated by Jet-hot. Radar's frame sliders have also been installed too! :P
    The parts list for the RC51 front end include:
    2000 RC51 SP1 Forks
    2000 RC51 SP1 Lower Triple and Steering Stem
    2004 RC51 SP2 Front Wheel with Rotors
    2000 CBR929 Upper Triple
    2004 Front Brake Calipers
    2004 CBR600RR Rear Brake M/C
    2005 CBR600F4i Front Brake M/C
    RC51 Front Fender
    Convertibars for RC51
    Galfer SS Brakeline Kit for 2007 Yamaha R1
    Galfer Front Brake Pads for RC51
    All Balls RC51 Tapered Bearings
  7. Darth Bling
    Reno-Fernley Track - June 2nd, 2007
    Pictures






    Summary
    I recently completed a track day at Reno-Fernley Raceway on Saturday, June 2nd. I was down in Reno for the second annual Reno VFRD meet. We had members from all over the west coast at the meet (San Bernardino, San Francisco, Newport, and Portland). On Friday, we all went for a ride to hit the local twisties and then we had a BBQ. Saturday we split into two groups: some of us went to the track and others went for a ride around Lake Tahoe. Afterwards, we regrouped for dinner and refreshments.
    Track day was an fantastic experience. This was my very first track day, so I had those first-day-of-school butterflies as I pulled into the pit area. After registering, I got in line for tech inspection and then we had a quick riders meeting. I was in the B- group, so our first session consisted of three sighting laps to learn the course and get comfortable. Each lap was about 3 miles long and comprised of over 20 turns. There were a few bumps out on the track and I noticed my suspension wasn’t taking them very well. As soon as I got back into the pit, I went on over to the Lindemann Engineering trailer and had my suspension set up properly by (I believe) Mr. Lindemann himself. I was able to get two laps in before my second session expired and I was very impressed with how the suspension was working now with the RC51 front-end and CBR-XX rear shock I had put on it. The bike handled extremely well and soaked up bumps 1000% better than before.
    Now that my suspension was set up, I was ready to hit the track. But by the end of my third session, I had another problem. I had a set of regular sport tires (Pirelli Diablos), on my bike and I was pushing the tires past their limits. My rear end kicked out on me a few times during the session, but nothing too bad. During the last lap of my session, I learned just how bad my tires were actually performing. I was banked over in a tight left-hander when both tires gave up on me. For about half a second, the only thing keeping the bike upright was my knee, my left peg and foot, and the gear shift lever (which got grounded down pretty good). Luckily, I was able to push the bike back up and save it. Right after that, I entered a long right-hand sweeper and that’s when I definitely knew something was wrong. I was trying to keep my line nice and tight, but the bike was drifting off line. Once I got out of the sweeper, I had drifted about 20-feet off my line (almost ended up in the dirt actually).
    I immediately found the Dunlop dealer after my third session and bought some D208 GP-compound track tires to replace my Diablos. I was inspecting my old tires and notice that the edges were shiny. That told me the tires were getting way too hot and that’s why I was sliding around the track. Once the Dunlops got spooned on, I hopped back out on the track. What an unbelievable transformation those tires made! It was like going from snow-packed roads to fresh, clean asphalt. Those tires stuck like glue in every corner and at every lean angle.
    Lunch was served and there was three more afternoon sessions left in the day. The temperature had reached a high of 93°F, which made wearing a full leather one-piece suit a bit uncomfortable. I spent my last three sessions working on form and technique. By the end of the day, I felt much more comfortable and quicker on the track. I still have a lot work to do. My upperbody position is a little bit off, plus I need to work on my brake/throttle transitions. But, the goal now is to apply everything that I’ve learned on the track to the road. With a better arsenal of techniques and skills, I can navigate the roads safer and smarter than before. :thumbsup:
  8. Darth Bling
    Yup, it's official. I've spent way too much time on here. I'm now up to 2000 posts!

    Well, in my "1000 Posts" blog entry, I talked about some "grand" milestones I've had. I don't remember any of them right now, but they were pretty cool. B) Now, how about some 2000 milestones. Hmmm.....
    ...yeah, I've got nothing. :P Well, here's picture of me in my new favorite shirt.

    And what about a showing of all my avators that I've ever had: :beer:

    Hmm, yeah, I'm out of ideas now.
  9. Darth Bling

    Future Frankenviffer?

    By Darth Bling,

    I've always considered my bike a "baby" Frankenviffer. The left gearswitch is from a Suzuki GSXR, it had Buell footpegs at one time, and the grips are from BMW. In the near future, I hope to graph a Euro-spec VFR gearswitch onto it, my 98/99 VFR headers are currently at Jet-Hot, and I've got a rear shock from a CBR1100XX Blackbird that I'm going to install.
    Sure, my bike definitely has parts from other motorcycles attached (or soon to be attached) to it. But, what normally catapults a bike into official Frankenvifferdom is a major transplant. For most people that transplant happens to be USD forks and I'll be following suit shortly. :D
    I just scored a set of 2000 RC51 SP1 forks and triples from ebay today!!! Oh yeah!!! :beer:

    UPDATE!!!!! (February 6th, 2007)
    Just bought a set of RC51 front brake calipers to go with my forks!! Yeah for me! :P Also, my headers come back from Jet-Hot yesterday! I can't wait to get them installed. :thumbsup:

    UPDATE!!!!! (February 9th, 2007)
    Just bought a 2000 CBR929 upper triple clamp from fleabay. Check it out.

    UPDATE!!!!! (February 12th, 2007)
    Booyah!!! Just scored a 2004 RC51 front wheel WITH brake rotors!!!! All I need now is a front fender and a wheel axle and I'm all set! ^_^

    UPDATE!!!!! (February 14th, 2007)
    Axle problem solved. Found a good cheap one on ebay.

  10. Darth Bling

    Pnw Vfrd Meet 2006

    By Darth Bling,

    Too bad I only made it down to Newport on Saturday, I would have loved to have been there all weekend.
    You see, I had some family obligations that I had already made a year ago (before the date for the PNW meet was every decided on) so that?s way I missed most of the meet. I was up in Long Beach, WA with my parents for a Goldwing Road Riders Association campout; lot of fun actually. Anyway, I managed to skip out on Saturday and ride down for the VFR meet.
    So, I left at about 4:30 AM from Long Beach heading straight down US-101. Never again will I ever ride down highway 101 that early in the morning. There was so much mist coming off the Pacific and, being that it was pitch black out, I could see a damn thing when it stuck to my visor. Plus, since it was only 42°F is some sections, my visor kept fogging up. Cracking it open didn?t help at all since all the mist would find it?s way onto the inside of the visor, so I ended riding a good portion of 101 with my visor open. <_<
    So, I arrived at Georgie?s Grill in Newport at 7:45 AM, about 15 minutes later that I had hoped for and I was greeted by a parking lot full of bikes!

    After breakfast, we all headed up US-101 to OR-229, the Siletz Highway, just south of Lincoln City. We blasted down that until we reached the town of Siletz. From there, we jumped onto OR-411 and proceeded east. About 18 miles down the road we all stopped because the road turned to gravel (just like Keith warned us). It was only about a mile of gravel to get though so no big deal. I was kind of cool to see a huge conga-line of sport-bikes winding down a gravel road.
    The next spot that we regrouped at was in Nashville, right at the end of OR-411 where it runs into OR-180. Here's some pictures of us all stopped:



    We then proceeded east on OR-180 until it ran into US-20, which by the way is the longest US highway in the nation, going from Newport, OR to Boston, MA (a nice piece of trivia I picked up from Keith). As a side note, if you interested in the history of US-20, here's a pretty good site that has some information: Link.
    Anyway, we stopped at the junction of US-20 and OR-180 for a quick breather. From there we went east to OR-34 (right outside of Philomath) and then took that south to Deeker Road. At the end of Deeker Rd, we turned right onto Bellfountain Rd and then took an immediate left onto Greenberry Rd. About a mile up the road, we turned left into Tyee Wine Cellars to do some wine tasting. After sampling a pinot noir, a pinot blanc, and a chardonnay, we all had are own favorites. I personally liked the blanc the best and I thought the chardonnay was excellent too. After some of us had bought a bottle of our favorite wine, we left for lunch.
    Following Deeker Road back out, we went back up OR-34 and then turned right down Grange Hall Rd for a fantastic lunch at Gathering Together Farm, a little organic food shop/restaurant. After lunch, we gassed up in Philomath and then headed down US-20 to hit OR-34. We hit some awesome twisties on OR-34 and they so much fun that some of us turned around to do them again. Here's a picture that Keith snapped of me:

    And here's a couple of pictures I took of Keith on the same corner:


    At think it was at this point, when some of us stopped to go back into the twisties and some of us waited for those of us in the twisties to finish up, that a group of us ended up headed off without the rest of us. Apparently this group went on ahead to where they thought the rest of us were going to meet them, but we never shown up. Opps.
    Anyway, the group I was in finished up at the twisties and then proceeded to Waldport on US-101. It was on the way there that I almost ate it in a corner. So, this is what happened: I had just changed my clutch and brake fluid on Wednesday and somehow I screwed up putting the clutch master cylinder cover on because it was leaking a little bit. I had been watching it all day and cleaning of the clutch fluid whenever it seeped out. Well, I was using my left glove to wipe some of the fluid away and when I looked back up to see that the road was gone. All I saw was a giant wall of rock and dirt, and three yellow signs with black arrows pointing right. I didn't even have time to think and I immediately dove right in my lane. I hugged the double-yellow all the way around the corner easing off the throttle trying to scrub some speed off. Wow! What a pump of adrenaline! I was so pissed off at myself for not paying attention to the road and for getting myself in a fatal situation that was 100% avoidable. Ok, lesson learned.
    Once we hit Waldport we blasted up back up to Newport. Around 6:00 or so, we started showing up at the Rogue Brewery. There was a washing station set up and we all cleaned our bikes before putting them inside the brewery. I took pictures of everyone's bikes, but some of the pictures came out blurry <_< . But, here are the pictures that didn't:

    Keithbob's bike



    Keith's brother John's FJR
    .

    Some crappy 6th gen :D

    Sunline's 5th gen with Givi Bags

    Flailer's 6th gen.

    Superfunkomatic's bike.

    Silver788's blue 5th gen.



    Avid One's yellow 5th gen.

    Richmerrill's RC51.
    I must apologize, but I don't know who owns every bike here. So if you see your bike and I don't have your name underneath it, shoot me a PM and I'll add your name under your bike's picture.
    I also went on the Rogue Brewery tour as well. It was pretty interesting actually. Here are a few pictures I snapped of it:

    Beer everywhere!

    Ahh, the miracle of beer!

    Claudia looking at all the beer.

    More beer!
    Can't wait until next year's PNW meet in Vancouver, WA. Magellen will be the offical host of it, but I'll probably help him out as much as I can (since I only live across the river from him).
    ~Tim
  11. Darth Bling

    Winter Maintance

    By Darth Bling,

    Well, the forecast for Portland the next few days sucks. Looks like snow is on the way. Well, I guess I'll start working on the bike then. It's been sitting in the garage for quite a while. I don't think it's been started since early December. :unsure:
    Anyway, my plans for the next few weeks is to (in order of importance):
    • Do the valve check
    • Change out the fork fluid
    • Flush out the radiator
    • Swap out rear shock with one from a Blackbird
    • Put 98/99 headers on the bike
    • Redo some of auxillary wiring.
    Besides oil, oil filters, and brake fluid, the bike's never had any kind of major service done to it. I'm positive it still has the original antifreeze and fork oil that was put into it January 2002 when it come from the factory. So, this will be good. :thumbsup:
    I'll probably keep this blog entry up-to-date with my winter maintance happenings.
    Just picked up a European-spec right gearswitch. Hopefully it'll just plug right into my wiring harness no problem, but I know that's not going to be the case. :rolleyes: The parts fiche actually lists four seperate wiring harnesses for the 6th gen (one for Canadan/USA, one for Europe, one for Australia, and another for France). Anyway, the important thing is now I've got the headlight button on the right gearswitch. I'll figure out some way to wire it all together. :thumbsup:
    Finally got around to ordering some Stopper Slide Pins for the valve clearance check. They should be here within a week. In the meantime, I should probably check out JetHot. I seem to remember hearing that the 5th gen headers were regular steel while the 6th gen headers were stainless steel. Don't want me "new" headers to rust out. That would suck.
    Got the Euro-spec right gearswitch today. Yup, just like I thought, it's not going to be a simple plug-n-play job. This is going to take some serious rewiring. <_<
    Well, so far I've managed to tear down my spare engine for practice. Now, it's time to tear my bike apart. Already got the tank moved off to the side (supported by two milk crates stacked on top of each other with a 5-gallon bucket in the top crate). I had to go out last night and buy a new screwdriver so I can get the throttle body taken off the boots. Tonight, I hope to have the bike tore down to the valves.
    Remove the throttle bodies last night. I also drained the gas tank and stuck it in the corner out of the way. Pull the spark plug coils off too. I also had to remove my air horns. I'll probably start taking the exhaust off today. I sent my catless headers to Jet-Hot last week, so those should be coming back next week hopefully. While I have the exhaust off, I can also swap out my rear shock with my Blackbird shook too.
  12. Darth Bling

    Engine Finds New Home

    By Darth Bling,

    Sweet! I just won an auction for a used 6th Gen engine and it only costed me $51. :tongue:
    Now I just have to drive all the way up to Blaine, WA to pick it up. I'll hoping to head up the first weekend in December to get it, since I hopefully already be up in Seattle for the International Motorcycle Show.
    So, I'm sure that the few of you who actually read my blog are wondering what plans I could possible have for a spare engine? Hmm, good question. :biggrin: For starters, I want to take it apart this winter as a warm up before tackling the valve adjustment on my bike. Once that's done, I'll probably use the engine for spare parts or something. I guess we'll see what happens then. :wink:
    Anyway, here are pictures of the beast:

    UPDATE:
    I picked up the engine last Saturday on the 9th of December. Yup, I drove all the way up to Blaine, WA to get it. It was still way cheaper than having it shipped down here, pull I get a nice road trip out of it too. And since I was up there, I decide to head on over to the Peace Arch and stare at it for a second or two. Then I took a quick walk and went into Canada for a bit, just so I can say that I went there. No, this wasn't the first time I've been to Canada, but if you're only two miles from the border you might as well go visit it. :biggrin:
    Anyway, back to the engine. Adam, the guy I bought the engine from, helped me load it load into the back of my Subaru. It managed to leak antifreeze everywhere, luckily I had it sitting on a tarp and my cargo area has a rubber spill mat too. Nearly pulled my back when I picked up the engine to put it in my garage. I also had to spend some time cleaning the antifreeze off my rubber car mat. Brake disk cleaner works great at this!
    Adam's a cool guy. He runs some kind of business picking up wreaked vehicles and then he parts them out. That's where I got my engine. It was a thief recovery; somebody had stolen it, repainted it blue, and then wreak it. I actually remember seeing the bike on ebay being parted out over the last year or so. All that Adam had left was a frame and engine, so he stuck those on ebay one last time at 99¢ a piece. Thats how I managed to get it for only $51. :tongue:
  13. Darth Bling

    Neue Spiegel

    By Darth Bling,

    My new mirrors just arrived today in the mail from Germany!! :P
    Yup, I ordered some mirrors with integrated turnsignals from Thurn Motorsports' ebay store. Installation was a piece of cake, since I already had the wiring done up for the Kisan vectraLights, Model VL-20. Anyway, here are the pictures of the new mirrors. :happy:

    I ended up wiring the LEDs to the running lights and then grounded them out through the turn signal wires. That way the lights are on all the time but flash on and off when I active the turn signal.
    Plus, I can see some much more behind me now with these new mirrors. They stick just a tad bit further out than the stock mirrors, but they sit much higher up. :cool:
    Oh yeah, none of that crap off to the left in the picture is mine. That's all my friend's junk, except for the golf club box. My cat-less headers are in there. :biggrin:
  14. Darth Bling

    Ramblings

    By Darth Bling,

    Lately it seems the mood of VFRD has been somewhat hostile. It just seems that the normally good nature of most posts have been negative. I'm sure this negativity isn't intentional an anybody's part (at least I hope not), maybe it's because winters coming up or something. Who knows? :unsure:
    Anyway, on the lighter side of things, I got some Helibars installed on my bike. A kind gentlemen from Australia who rides a Blackbird made me a very tempting offer. He wanted to buy the Helibars that Bailey was selling a few weeks ago and then swap them for my stock clip-ons. All I had to pay for was shipping costs to send my stock bars to him in Australia. How could I refuse an offer like that?! :D These Helibars rock! I can't wait to try them out.
    Anyway, now that means I have a set of Gen-Mars lying around that I don't need. I have a few other items laying around my garage that I don't need, so I'll probably be posting a "yard sale" thread sometime next week. I would do it now, but I'm so busy and stressed out. Everything will be better after next Monday.
    I also got a Sargent seat a few weeks ago. Up until now, I've been less than impressed. I hate to say it but my stock seat was more comfortable. I usually seat on the front part of the seat, which isn't comfortable to do on the Sargent. But, these Helibars really seem to push me back a bit on the seat, so maybe the Sargent is going to work out just fine. Plus, my girlfriend seems to like the Sargent better anyway (which is actually the most important thing). The only complaint she has, as do I, is the Sargent is too slippery. I need to get some kind of grippy cover for it, then it'll be perfect. :thumbsup:
    I'm also getting anxious for my new mirrors to arrive. I ordered some new mirrors from Germany since my right mirror got snapped off a while back. They are going to be so sweet to put on. I can't wait! Hmmm, that reminds me, the weather is getting pretty cold now. I'm going to need to dig out my electric vest and fix it. I'm not sure what happened to it, maybe a wire got pinched or something.
  15. Darth Bling

    A Grand Day Out

    By Darth Bling,

    Woo Hoo!!! I just noticed that I've reached 1000 posts today!!! Yeah for me. Now I have six of those blue boxes after under my name!

    Here's the story about how I got my VFR.
    My friend, Fred, was up visiting from San Francisco for the weekend. He had just bought himself a brand new 2003 SV1000S that a dealer had leftover. This really got me thinking about what my next bike was going to be. At that point in time, I was riding a 2001 Honda VLX600 Shadow, which I bought new in October 2001. The Shadow was my first bike and it was awesome. I'd managed to only put 7000 miles on it in the three and half years that I had owned it. It was great beginners bike, but I had out-grown it.
    http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow1.jpg[/img]
    http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow2.jpg[/img]
    http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow3.jpg[/img]
    I eventually sold the Shadow to a nice lady a few months later. She and her husband ran a floral shop out southeast of the city and they had been looking for a bike that she could ride. She was pretty short, so the Shadow fit here perfectly.
    Anyway, back to the story. So, Fred and I were out at Beaverton-Tigard Honda look around at bikes. I was interested in sport-touring bikes, like a BMW R1150 or a Honda ST1100. Cruising around the showroom floor, I was looking at bikes nonchalantly when I saw it: a 2003 silver VFR with hard bags. I immediately feel in love with the bike. It looked so good, and it come with hard bags. Perfect! After a quick test ride on it, I knew this was the bike for me.
    I tried negotiating with the dealership, but they wouldn't drop their price. Despite have a hideous dent in the tank, some rash on the tail section, and about 2500 miles on the odometer, the dealership wanted $10500. Why?! Because it was a new bike. WTF?! Apparently, because nobody had every officially owned it, they consider it brand new motorcycle. I'm sorry, but a used bike is a used bike, doesn't matter if it's ever been "officially" own by someone. Plus, there was no way in hell I was going to buy a bike that had obviously been down at full MSRP.
    Later that night, I was searching on Craigslist and ran across this pristine 2002 Red VFR in Lake Oswego. Here are the pictures that were in the ad:

    Bike1.jpg

    Bike2.jpg

    Bike3.jpg

    Bike4.jpg

    Bike5.jpg
    Absolutely beautiful. :wub:
    So, the very next day, May 1st, turned out to a be a grand day. Fred and I went out to Lake Oswego to meet Mike, the owner of the red VFR bike. It only had 533 miles on the odometer and it had already been in for it's 600-mile service. His asking price, $7900 firm. Hmm, a bit more than I wanted to pay for a "used" bike, but it was a pretty good deal, especially since the bike was basically brand new. I knew Mike would have no trouble getting his asking price for the bike, so I couldn't play the waiting game because somebody else would come along and snatch it up immediately. So, I took the plunge. A couple of weeks later, on May 12th, 2005, I arrived with a check in one hand and a helmet in my other. The bike was mine! And then a few days after that, I official joined VFRD on Monday the 16th.
    So, I've been a member of VFRD for 438 days and I've got 1000 posts! That's over 2 posts a day, perhaps I should cut back a little. :D
    All in all, I've very happy with my choice. The VFR has been great. And, staying within the theme of this blog, I figure I should post a picture I took on a very "grand" day. :thumbsup:

    Oregon coast, during my Saddlesore 1000
  16. Darth Bling

    Gospodor Monument

    By Darth Bling,

    For years now, whenever I've been driving on I-5 between Portland and Seattle, I've been seeing these statues on the side of the highway. I've always wondered what they were, but I've never gotten around to stopping and seeing them up close.
    Well today I was up in the Seattle area picking up some VFR parts and on the way home back to Portland my friend Bryan and I decided to stop and see these statues. The monuments are near mile post 60. Here are the pictures I took:

    Informational billboard visible from the interstate.

    The statues.

    Monument for the Holocaust Victims, Mother Teresa, and Jesus.

    Statue of Jesus.

    A close up of the Jesus.

    Another view of Jesus.

    Monument for the Victims of the Holocaust.

    Monument for the Indian Tribes. I believe the statue is a representation of Chief Seattle.

    Statue of Mother Teresa (with Bryan in the background).

    Another view of all four monuments.

    View from Camus Rd, near Toledo, WA.

    Some land use action billboard.
    The statues were built by Dominic Gospodor in 2002. Apparently from what I've read, he had plans to build five more monuments in honor of African-Americans history, the people killed each year by drunken driving, polio-vaccine developer Jonas Salk, women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, and William Seward (who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for about 2 cents an acre). But unfortunately, Mr. Gospodor cannot get anymore permits to build his statues. The DOT apparently has problems with the monuments causing traffic problems on the interstate, and they're afraid if new monuments are constructed the traffic problems would get worse.
    Anyway, the statues were pretty cool. I had a huge spider crawling around on my back that Bryan pointed out. That wasn't very cool. So now, if you're driving on I-5 between Longview and Chehalis, you'll know what the statues are all about. :cool:
  17. Darth Bling

    Just Ranting

    By Darth Bling,

    ARRGGGG!!!! I hate ebay snipers. I'm so pissed right now.
    So, I find this 1993 VFR rear wheel on ebay for dirt cheap. The only problem with it is that it's bent a little. No problem, I get the rim cheap, have it straighten locally, and I've got a 8-spoke rim. Great idea!!!
    With only 5 seconds left in the auction, some ass-hat snipes me with a higher bid. WTF!! :mad: I hope his new 8-spoke rim flies apart on him when he's up above 100 mph. Seriously, be a real man and put a bid down like you've got some balls. None of this ninja, death-from-afar crap. If he had placed a bid an hour before the auction ended, then fine. I probably would have let him have it since I wasn't planning on spending too much money on the rim.
    But now.... @#$@#$@#$!@% :pissed: I wish I had a really high bid in just so he wouldn't he get it. Son of a @#!!@# Ebay should put a rule in place so nobody can bid on a auction within the last hour unless they had already placed a bid earllier. I'm heading to my garage to wrench on the bike. That'll make me feel better.
    UPDATE
    Ok, so I went out to garage for some therapeutic wrenching. Well, somehow I managed to drop all the brake fluid out of my clutch slave cylinder. :dry: Blipping wonderful.
    So as I'm putting the slave cylinder back together I manage to squirt brake fluid in my right eye. Not good!! Thinking fast, I grabbed my half-empty beer and pour it into my eye to clean out the brake fluid. :mellow: Great. Now I have brake fluid and beer everywhere. Freaking great.
    Remember kids, always wear eye protection. :cool:
  18. Darth Bling
    Ok, so I ended up heading to Seattle today with my girlfriend to pick up her flute from the repair shop. After we stopped by the music store, which was located in the mall, we decided to walk around a bit. Anyway, as we left the mall to head out, I noticed a gathering of mall security guards. After a second look, I notice the guards are standing next to these two bikes. One of which was laying on the ground and the other was being held up by one of the security guards. Obviously, I had to go investigate.
    What did I spy? Two brand-new CBR600RRs, a red and silver, both with temporary plates on the back. Even the front tires still had the those brand-new color lines in them from the factory. Yup, you guessed it, both these bikes had just been bought today! The silver bike, which was being held up by the security guard, had a busted turn signal and some rash. The red bike didn't fair much better, though it was hard to tell since it was still laying on its side. It appears that the proud new owners of the CBRs didn't pay any attention to where they decided to park their bikes, right on top of fresh new asphalt. And, being that it was about 98?F out, the asphalt was freakin soft!!!
    So, I asked the security guard why he just doesn't roll the bike forward a bit so that he can set the kickstand down on the harder, older pavement. His reply, "I don't have any idea how these things work." What?! I better get in there and help, so I told the guard I could move the bikes for him. He asks me, "Do you know how these things work?" to which I replied, "Yeah, I own a couple of bikes."
    After putting my ice mocha down on the curb, I grabbed the silver CBR from the security guard, popped the bike into neutral, and pushed it forward. By then more security guards arrived and one of them had righted the red bike. When I walked over to it, the security guard I had just helped said to the other one, "This guy knows what he's doing." So, I popped the red CBR out of gear and pushed it forward a bit, put it back down on the kickstand, and then rotated the bike about 30? right on it's kickstand. Since the steering head was locked and there was a car in the way, I had to spin it around a bit. Dang those CBRs are light!
    Anyway, the security guards had a look of amazement on their faces when I rotated the bike on it's kickstand. After getting it turned, I then push it forward until it was sitting on the older asphalt that wasn't melting in the sun. The guards thanked me for me help and I grabbed my mocha and proceeded to the car. As we were leaving, I swung back around to see how the situation with the bikes was proceeding and I see a security guard leading these two kids to the bikes. Yup, squids. They were both wearing popped-collar polo shirts, tennis shoes, and designer jeans and carrying their $500 helmets. Poor bikes. Hopefully they'll see better days.
  19. Darth Bling
    Well, it was an incredibly nice day today, except for the heat of course. I ended up heading to Windy Ridge near Mt. St. Helens for a ride with some old and new friends! :thumbsup:
    So, my friend Bryan and I took off this morning from my place and we headed of north to meet up with Loni (magellen) and his wife, Sarah. We ended up blasting north on I-205 to Highway-12 where we headed to Morton, which was about 110 miles. Morton was where we were supposed to meet up with Keith (keithbob) and his brother, John. Well, we got there a little late and Keith and John had already left, so after we filled up the bikes and took off. Once we got to Randle, we turned south and started towards Windy Ridge.
    It was really nice to head back down that road with all the experience and knowledge I know now. You see, it was on this road (hwy 131) that I wreaked my bike about a year ago or so. I was coming down this 20 mph hairpin at about 50 mph, which I had been doing all day, when the bank of the road changed. I got freaked out and grabbed a handful of brake like any newbie would do. My trek into the forest was cut short when my bike low-side in the dirt and then abuptly stopped when it ran into a tree stump. Luckily, the tree stump uprooted, so there wasn't any damage to the forks. But the sudden stop did send me flying face-first into the ground. I remember thinking to myself, "Thank goodness I'm wearing a full-face helmet." right before I face planted.
    Anyway, to get back on subject, I ended up passing Loni, who was leading, because I had just caught this huge bug on my visor and I couldn't see the road anymore. I didn't want to open my face shield because I might end up catching a rock from Loni's bike, so I decided to pass Loni and ride up ahead with my face shield open.

    Once we got to Windy Ridge, we meet up with Keith and John. John had just bought himself a brand new FJR1300. Very pretty bike.

    Here a pic of my friend, Bryan, with his FZ6.

    While we were at Windy Ridge, I snapped a picture of Mt. Adams.

    After we left Windy Ridge, I stopped at a view point and took a picture of the not-so-sleeping giant.

    Back onto the road, we headed south to Cougar. Keith spied a great spot for a photo-op, so we all stopped. Some nice guy was there to take our picture for us. From left to right, we have Keith, Loni, Sarah, Bryan, John, and myself.
    And, here are some action shot I took of everybody after we left the view point.

    Keith with his brother, John, close behind.

    Loni and Sarah

    And Bryan.
    We got lunch in Cougar and then we went our different ways. Keith and John were going to head to the interstate and split up from there. Keith lives in Newport, OR and John's in Tacoma, WA. Bryan and I followed Loni and Sarah back down to Vancouver where we eventually split up.
    All in all, it was an awesome ride. About 300 miles total for Bryan and me. The heat was a pain, but the company well made up for it. :beer:
  20. Darth Bling
    Last weekend I decided to head down to San Francisco and meet up with some friends. I took Friday off from work and rode 650 miles down to San Francisco. I had just put a new chain and sprocket on Thursday night, so I was constantly checking and adjusting my chain.
    Saturday morning, Fred (wazzufreddo) and I headed out of San Francisco to Livermore to pick up another friend, Dennis (who's actually a vfrd member, but lurks here most of the time). From there, we head to Yosemite. Outside Escalon on highway 120, we had to stop for a train. Time for some photos!

    Here's a picture of Fred. You can see the train in the background.

    And here's a picture of Dennis. In this picture, not only can you see the train, but you can also see the commuter train that also went screaming by while we were waiting for the freight train to pass.

    Here's a picture of the bikes at a view point in Yosemite.

    And here's a picture Fred took of me when I was standing on the rocks getting ready to take the picture of the bikes that you see above.

    There were some other bikes at the view point too. Most of theme were Harleys, but there was one guy on a BMW RT (I think). Well, he come over to say hi to us and then offered to take a picture of all of us next to our bikes. Awesome! Thanks dude, whoever you were.

    This would make a decent desktop background.
    We eventually made it out of Yosemite and got some lunch at a gas station where highway 120 and highway 395 meet. Pretty good food there. After lunch, we took off to head back home.

    Heading north on highway 395, we stopped real quick to check out Mono Lake. For all the safety-nazis and ATGATT guys out there, calm down. Both Dennis and Fred are wearing armor underneath their jeans.

    And here are the Viffers up on Sonara Pass. Wow, what an awesome road. Lots of twisties, switchbacks, and hair-pins, all the while going up a 26% grade. After making it though the bulk of the twisties, Dennis had to stop for a quick break, so I snapped the picture above.

    And here's Fred coming up on his SV. Poor guy; he was dying by the end of the day. Of course, he didn't get any sympanthy from Dennis or me since he did it to himself. All in all, Fred and I did 530 miles that day. Dennis, since he started in Livermore, only did 480 miles.
    Sunday after breakfast, we all headed out to a big parking lot in the Presidio of San Francicso. Fred and Dennis swapped bikes for a bit so Dennis could get a taste of the SV's massive torque. I ended up practicing tight turns until I found some traffic cones. So I ended up setting up a low speed slalom and we all took turns running through it. It was pretty hard to make it through, since you had to go back and forth between full lock right and full lock left. :thumbsup:
    Nothing special happened Monday. Just spent all day riding back up to Portland. All in all, I put about 1800 miles on the bike in four days. :beer:
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